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on Africa |
| By: | Matthew Pflaum (University of Florida) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the geographical and temporal evolution of violence in which pastoralists are engaged. Building upon an analysis of over 36,000 violent events in North and West Africa between January 1997 and April 2020 in which 206 pastoralist groups were involved, this paper provides a regional report on wider patterns of pastoralist violence over the last two decades. Pastoralist violence has both expanded and intensified in the region, as is evidenced by the rapid increase in number of events and fatalities over the past decade. A comprehensive understanding of pastoralists’ roles in this violence is thus crucial to facilitating more effective polices towards sustainable peace. |
| Keywords: | North Africa, Pastoralism, political violence, security, West Africa |
| JEL: | Q34 N47 D74 R52 |
| Date: | 2021–07–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:swacaa:31-en&r= |
| By: | Ofori, Isaac K |
| Abstract: | A conspicuous lacuna in the literature on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the lack of clarity on variables key for driving and predicting inclusive growth. To address this, I train the machine learning algorithms for the Standard lasso, the Minimum Schwarz Bayesian Information Criterion (Minimum BIC) lasso, and the Adaptive lasso to study patterns in a dataset comprising 97 covariates of inclusive growth for 43 SSA countries. First, the regularization results show that only 13 variables are key for driving inclusive growth in SSA. Further, the results show that out of the 13, the poverty headcount (US$1.90) matters most. Second, the findings reveal that ‘Minimum BIC lasso’ is best for predicting inclusive growth in SSA. Policy recommendations are provided in line with the region’s green agenda and the coming into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area. |
| Keywords: | Clean Fuel; Economic Growth; Machine Learning; Lasso; Sub-Saharan Africa; Regularization; Poverty. |
| JEL: | C52 C53 C55 C63 C87 F6 O1 O55 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:108622&r= |
| By: | Luc Eyraud; Irina Bunda; Zhangrui Wang |
| Abstract: | The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, which has hit financial systems across Africa, is likely to deteriorate banks’ balance sheets. The largest threat to banks pertains to their loan portfolios, since many borrowers have faced a sharp collapse in their income, and therefore have difficulty repaying their obligations as they come due. This could lead to a sharp increase in nonperforming loans (NPLs) in the short to medium term. |
| Keywords: | Nonperforming loan disposal; Excel template; disposal strategy; raise capital requirement; loan portfolio; management cost; Nonperforming loans; Loans; Distressed assets; Financial statements; Collateral; Sub-Saharan Africa; Africa |
| Date: | 2021–06–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfhtn:2021/006&r= |
| By: | Cirolia, Liza Rose; Hall, Suzanne; Nyamnjoh, Henrietta |
| Abstract: | Remittances are increasingly central to development discourses in Africa. The development sector seeks to leverage transnational migration and rapid innovations in financial technologies (fintech), to make remittance systems cheaper for end-users and less risky for states and companies. Critical scholarship, however, questions the techno-fix tendency, calling for grounded research on the intersections between remittances, technologies, and everyday life in African cities and beyond. Building on this work, we deploy the concepts of ‘micro-worlds’ and ‘migrant infrastructure’ to make sense of the complex networks of actors, practices, regulations, and materialities which shape remittance circulations. To ground the work, we narrate two vignettes of remittance service providers who operate in Cape Town, South Africa, serving the Congolese diaspora community. We showcase the important role of logistics companies in the ‘informal’ provision of remittance services and the rise of fintech companies operating in the remittance space. These vignettes give substance to the messy and relational dynamics of remittance micro-worlds. This relationality allows us to see how remittances are circulations, not unidirectional flows; how they are not split between formal and informal, but in fact intersect in blurry ways; how digital technologies are central to the story of migrant infrastructures; and how migrants themselves are compositional of these networks. In doing so, we tell a more relational story about how remittance systems are constituted and configured. |
| Keywords: | remittances; mobile money; regulation; migrant infrastructure; micro-worlds |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2021–05–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:110472&r= |